Sub bass and mid range bass layering inquiry

[Samplex]

so i know theres a whole slew of software out there and at the end of the day it all comes down to what works best for you.. so im going to just create a hypothetical situation for this question. lets say you use ableton and massive. obviously massive is where most of the mid range basses come from, so my question is, is it most common for people who use these programs to do their sub bass with massive also? or to do the sub bass in ableton and all the mid range basses with massive? i know you could do both ways, but i was wondering which one seems more common/logical.. sub and mid with massive or one with massive the other with ableton? cheers

[just-the-tip]

Ok, there's a lot of posts on this and everyone is gonna tell you to search so here:
Any synth capable of making a sine wave can be used for sub bass. Massive is a bit overkill, but it will work.
Generally, it's much easier to use a simple synth for your sub bass because there is not a lot of room for interference at those low frequencies.

[makemerich]

so i know theres a whole slew of software out there and at the end of the day it all comes down to what works best for you.. so im going to just create a hypothetical situation for this question. lets say you use ableton and massive. obviously massive is where most of the mid range basses come from, so my question is, is it most common for people who use these programs to do their sub bass with massive also? or to do the sub bass in ableton and all the mid range basses with massive? i know you could do both ways, but i was wondering which one seems more common/logical.. sub and mid with massive or one with massive the other with ableton? cheers

sub boom bass is great. easy. rob papen makes good shit.
if u done want to spend the money there is a good free sub bass, called...shit i forgot what its called.
its really simple to use and gives u 2 oscillators. i can get the name for you but im bouncing a track right now.
i heard oatmeal is a good freebie.

no matter what you do, be sure to not put the sub frequencies on the mid range bass.
that would just clutter your mix.
a sine wave is a sine wave, but the sub boom bass gives you lots of fun options.

[filthy_]

pure sine wave, it doesnt need to be anything special what so ever. if youre using ableton, i know a few of their synts basic patch is a sine wave, if im mistaken, just load a sine into operator and drop it an octave.

if youre worried because you cant hear it, write something up quick. anything that has the sub youre trying to listen to. put it on an ipod/cd and listen to it in your car. you will hear it!

[Muta]

Massive is a bit overkill, but it will work.

Why would Massive be overkill? Supposing you would just use a regular sine.
Just use 2 seperate instances, one for the Midrange sound and the other the seperate sine-sub. however, aslong as one stated before, keep your sub freqs. out of the Mid freqs, 'n its all good to go

[stevemac]

However, aslong as one stated before, keep your sub freqs. out of the Mid freqs, 'n its all good to go

Out of interest, what guidelines do you have for frequency ranges to use for sub, mids and high end? I say guideline very loosely as it completely depends on the type of sound, but I have a refer to guide in my head that I work with then tweak accordingly - but I'm not completely happy with it to be honest so would be good to know what others think?

Also, I haven't played any tracks on big systems, i;m thinking distortion on the sub should be kept pretty subtle??

[stereotactic]

Why would Massive be overkill? Supposing you would just use a regular sine.

Because Massive is an infinitely complex modulated beast, and using it just for a sine is a bit of a waste when any synth with a sine wave can do that job.

Not to say it can't be done, just Massive would probably be put to better use elsewhere.

stevemac, you can distort your sub, just gently, to give it a bit of fuzz and warmth, but if your mid bass is fairly busy it may be detrimental... as for a guide for frequency splitting, I usually go 50/80 <, 50/80 - 500, 500 > or something like that (funny, being away from my EQ I can't visualise the numbers, just the shapes!). You basically just want to split the frequency spectrum into thirds, and the tweak until you are happy with the sound you get.

[stevemac]

Thanks mate, that's pretty much the sort of figures i'm using - i tend to cut quite hard for each range, so maybe I should be a bit more gentle with the cut ratio (12db?) and blend them a bit more?

[stereotactic]

Yeah I usually allow a bit of overlap between ranges, I usually use 24db for the roll off as I find that to be adequate. Again it can be subjective depending on the sound you are splitting, but the cuts don't have to be hard to be effective. You will soon know if the crossover is too much once you start processing per channel, and then you can adjust the range accordingly.

Just play with it until you hit the sweet spot!